Sometimes when we are moving through challenges…it helps us to have a picture or an analogy to work with! Allow me to give you this example:

One of my daughters asked for my help to move through a challenging time…what she called a ‘repetitive strain.’ To me, repetitive strain could be anything…our physical bodies can have repetitive strains…our minds could have repetitive thoughts causing us strain. When I asked her what repetitive strain meant to her, she shared how she was bothered about a current relationship in her life and felt it was a repetitive issue stemming back to another relationship from her past.

When I connected with what my daughter was sharing, immediately I saw the picture of those old vinyl records; when I was growing up we used those vinyl records to listen to music. Do you remember them? I could see my daughter speaking about these ‘repetitive’ challenges…and used the analogy of the vinyl record to guide her through what she called a repetitive strain.

If you remember those records, music played on stereos using a type of needle that moved along a grove from the outside to the inside of the vinyl record. Those records could be played again and again…and at times the needle could get stuck in one spot repeating the same thing over and over. It feels funny to explain this today…our times have changed so much.

For my daughter, it felt like I needed to use the words, ‘where do you feel the needle is getting stuck on the record?’ My daughter replied, ‘the chorus of the song.’ Wow! As we may all know, a chorus has the same words and is repeated throughout the song. What were the words to the chorus of the song my daughter was repeating over and over in her head? Whenever she thought of those relationships now…she knew to focus on the words in the chorus of her mind. Her answers became clear.

There are two wonderfulpoints to highlight when it comes to repetitive challenges:

Any challenge that is repeated over and over in our life is offering us another opportunity to resolve that challenge;

Can we trace our current challenge back through other relationships? In other words…some of our challenges today are the same challenges we’ve had in past relationships. Doing a bit of inner review gives us some guidance as to what the challenge really is about. Was there anything in common?

It has been my experience whenever I am guided to use analogies…as well as pictures they work great for people to move through challenges. What may that look like?

When explaining things to people, we tend to use verbal expressions to give people a picture of what we’re feeling. One of the most common ways of explaining things would be to use the words, ‘it’s like’ or ‘it feels like.’ Here are two examples to guide you through:

A person may say, ‘I have a sore shoulder and it feels like my arm isn’t even attached.’ What picture would that give them? The expression may give them a picture where their arm isn’t in its socket. The arm feeling like it’s not attached may lead them back to a time in their life when they were ‘reaching out’ to ask for help and not getting it. In this example, the underlying challenge with soreness in the shoulder today leads them back to a time in their life when they weren’t feeling good about asking for help. Pictures can help them to feel their way through resolving the pain in their shoulder. Recognizing that…the soreness in the shoulder will lessen, if not, disappear totally and they will resolve something around reaching out to ask for help.

A person may say, ‘I have a sore stomach. It’s like someone punched me in the guts.’ A picture shows up in their mind’s eye and they may not have been punched. It’s like detective work now…they start looking for clues to work with that picture thinking about a time when they remembered something about being punched or punching. Those clues may lead them to a time in their life when they were verbally beaten down causing them to be sick to their stomach. The sore stomach today may actually involve feelings from a past relationship…repeating itself through a current relationship. Being aware of what the two relationships have in common…causing the stomach to be sore will lead this person to healing something deep within themselves!

We express what we are feeling…and then give people a picture they can relate to using the words ‘it’s like….’ Somehow there are elements in the pictures most people can relate to which help us to navigate through whatever is bothering us. Resolution will be the result.

Here are 4 benefits of using pictures or analogies:

they are something we can relate to when it comes to looking at a challenge in a different way;

they take the focus off what we currently perceive as the problem (for example, a person, thing or situation causing the problem)…and put the focus onto our underlying thoughts and emotions (for example, recognizing our feelings of anger may have something to do with not wanting to be told what to do);

they move the challenge from outside of us to inside where we may feel more guided and in control;

they can help us repair relationships in that we may tend to takes things less personally helping us to move through any resistance in resolving the challenge.

Now-a-days I personally feel we have amazing tools which are more acceptable to work with when it comes to resolving challenges. It’s a sign of the changing times. I invite you to start to notice if you use pictures and analogies when working with the insights that come to you every day.

May you find what works for you…find your own truth…and you will always be guided to feel at peace inside.